c15am

I told you I would write a follow-up post.

On Friday April 27th a bus pulled up in front of The Dalton School. I was on the bus. One day ago this bus had pulled up in front of Plymouth Plantation. I went to Plymouth Plantation for one night. This is what it was like.

When we got there my class went to the graveyard where the pilgrims actual graves were. We walked around in the graveyard and saw many of the names of the people that travled on the Mayflower. On the way back to the buses we saw many of the places where the Pilgrims actual houses stood (now they are just normal buildings there). When we got back to the place where we got off the bus, my class went to see the Mayflower II (a reconstruction of the Mayflower) andthe class that had already seen the Mayflower II went to see the graveyard.

On the way back we saw Plymouth rock. It was just a rock with a big 1620 in it. Then we went to see Mayflower II. The Mayflower II was really cool. It had 3 masts on it. Lying in the water next to it was the shallop. The shallop is a small boat that was used for fishing and making expeditions of the land. After seeing the main part of the deck we went up to the upper deck. There we got to meet somone who was pretending to be like a Pilgrim. We talked to her and she talked to us in the way that people would have talked 400 years ago. She asked us where we came from and when we said “New York” she didn’t know what that was (there had been nothing there when they arrived).

Later that day after we had brought our suitcases to where we are going to sleep, we visited the village of the Wampanoag tribe. That was the tribe of Native Amercian’s that we there 400 years ago. Insted of talking like their ancestors would, they talked like people talked now, but they lived like Native Americians. We saw them building canoes. They do this by taking a log and burning out the inside. The way they made it so that the whole log didn’t burn up was by using wood that was a little wet. Then we went into huts that they built and talked to some of them. We asked them a lot of questions about their life and they answered them. It was cool seeing what their life would have been like.

Then we had activites. First we went to see 2 pilgrim houses and tried to figure out how they would have lived. Then we got to write stuff in quill pens ex. our names, etc.. After that we got to play with toys that the Pligrims children used. There were hula hoops but insted of hula-hooping with them you took a stick and pushed it along. There was a game like tic-tack-toe and many more gamees like what we would use today. Then we got to dress up like the pilgrims. It was really funny seeing your friends wearing Pilgrims! Did you know that this thing a baby had to wear on their head called a pudding. Then we got to go to the place where we could have dinner. There was apple cider to drink and things to eat. Some of the things to eat are turky pottage (turky oatmeal), carrots, bread and butter and for dessert, pear teart.

Now we had to go to bed. The boys had to sleep in a big room and the girls had to sleep in another big room. In the morning we had breakfast and went to the gift shop to buy stuff. Then we visited the 1627 Pilgrim village. We saw what the pilgrim houses would be like and saw some of the people who work there living in the houses. Then we saw the gun place where they would protect their new coloney. Then we walked back to the bus and were on our way home. At 4:20 that day, we were back home.

In a week the 4th grade at The Dalton School are going to Plymouth, Cape Cod. This is where the Pilgrims landed on the Mayflower in 1621. We are staying there for one night. I think it will be fun there. All of the boys will sleep in one big room and all of the girls will sleep in another big room. Being there will show us how the real Pilgrims lived when they landed on Plymouth Rock. There, (in Cape Cod) people made a village about how it would have been in 1621. People are hired and they live in the village like the Pilgrims had. When we are going to be there we will eat and live like the Pilgrims would have lived. I am very excited to go there.
When I (c15am) get back I will add on to this about what it was like being there.

4th graders at the Dalton school in New York City have been studying forced immigration or slavery. This topic is part of their immigration study. They read a book by their teacher, Ms. Edinger about Sarah Margru Kinson, one of the slaves captured on the Amistad. Now, you’re wondering what the Amistad is right? (If you already know skip this little bit) The Amistad is a ship that captured slaves illegally and brought them to America. But one of the captives escaped, and he and some of the other men killed almost all of the crew. They kept some alive to get them back to Africa, but those sailors tricked them. During daytime they sailed towards Africa but at night they sailed toward America. The American Coast Guard found the ship and charged them with murder. After some hard times the to-be slaves won their trial and were sent back to Africa. Go to blogs.dalton.org/edinger/ for more information.

Also, Edinger house did many more projects about forced immigration. They did a poem unit with poet Natasha Trethewey. She read them poems by her friend about the Amistad and they wrote their own poems about a certain person from the point of view of the on the Amistad. One of the students brought some stuff from Africa that he got when he was there. He brought a wood sculpture, jewelry and many clothes.

It is important to know about events in history that were significant and interesting to learn about Forced Immigration.
“I really liked reading the book about Sarah Margru Kinson so we could learn how hard it was for the slaves”, said by a student in Edinger house.